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Saturday, January 07, 2006

Baby stuff

The bris (circumcision) will be held on the 8th day after the baby is born. Having never done this before, I was at a loss. I called the local Chabad rabbi (http://www.chabad.org/) and he said that they could set everything up, and even provide us with a minyan (10 Jewish men over the age of 13) which is needed. Good thing, as I don't know that many Jewish men in the Atlanta area. The only catch is that we will have to have the ceremony at the Chabad center, though it's not far away - at Peachtree Industrial and Holcomb Bridge road. I was planning on doing it here at the house, but that's just not going to be possible.

I also ordered Mezuzot for all of the non-bathroom and non-closet doorways here at the house. We have 11 of them! A Mezuzah is a part of the Shema, the primary Jewish prayer declaring one God, written down on a parchment scroll. There can be no errors or smudges on this scroll. Some people think of the Shema as being a single two-line prayer, but it actually goes on for three paragraphs. And those scrolls must each be handwritten by a qualified scribe, and are not cheap. But at least that's done. I wanted to be compliant with that part of the law before the baby was born.

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